Kathryn Orwig & Others

Photo of Kathryn Orwig & Others

KATHRYN ORWIG can be found in coffee shops writing about Marble Rollers, Dream Chasers, and Queens who were never born to wear a crown. From film and TV scripts to novels, poetry, and short stories, she enjoys writing everything and anything. Kathryn graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Creative Writing and minors in Russian and Russian Studies. She won a Hopwood Award in 2017, won the Seattle National Film Festival for Talented Youth’s Best Screenplay Competition in 2018, earned a Top 25 and Top 10 placement in the Barnstorm and Women in Horror Film Festival Competitions in 2019 and 2020, respectively. More of her work can be found at kathrynorwig.com

J.D. AKINS is rumored to be an amateur author operating in the Ann Arbor area. Reports allege that he is currently working on an undergraduate B.A. in English. One eyewitness statement claims that he enjoys writing short stories, radio dramas, and attempts at novels about spaceship captains, superheroes, or maybe the occasional wizard. This anthology supposedly contains his firstever published works, which he hopes to be the first of many.

IVY OBUCHOWSKI divides her time between writing, reading, and spending time outdoors despite sunburning easily and always bitten by insects. She graduated with a B.S. in the Environment focusing on conservation and wildlife with a minor in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. This is her first publishing endeavor and looks forward to more in the future.

CAROL MAY inhabits the same material realm that the rest of you do (as far as she’s aware anyway). Her stories have never been published before. Congratulations, you are one of the lucky ones that gets to start this whole writing journey with her. She doesn’t know what she’s doing and she’s got a degree to prove it! With a recently acquired University of Michigan B.S. in Earth Science along with a minor in Linguistics, she thinks a little too much about the future and a lot too much on what to write next. [Insert mention of giving hugs to her cute cat named Oreo here to instill endearment toward her to anyone who happens to be reading here].

KALEB A. BROWN. Kaleb aims to one day make a splash by writing novels that ditch the humdrum of our lives whilst dealing with the big emotions that we find ourselves grappling with. That isn’t to say Kaleb’s a one-trick pony: Kaleb writes short stories, poems, reviews, and journalism pieces. Most recently, he’s had his work published at the Detroit Free Press. He works toward a B.A. in Creative Writing, minoring in Global Media Studies and History. When he’s not writing or doing assignments (which is to say, hardly ever), he mostly likes to spend his time watching anime, reading novels, and playing video games.

L.L. RENNO, real name Lucas Renno, is an author and screenwriter with a particular focus on speculative and fantasy fiction. In his stories, he strives to create worlds that feel vast, alive, and—above all—real, while at the same time taking care to not lose focus of the numerous colorful characters that inhabit them. Despite this predilection toward worldbuilding, Renno is also perfectly at home creating stories set in our world and our times, often drawing heavily on his own numerous experiences in order to create the optimal story to make one simultaneously laugh and cry. When not writing, Renno can often be found in the kitchen honing his skill as a chef and baker, or in front of his computer at 3 in the morning reading random articles on Wikipedia.

ABBY O’MEARA  is a theoretical being who is reportedly studying toward a B.S. in microbiology and a minor in Chinese Language and Culture, and also manages to sometimes write in their spare time. They enjoy writing novels and short stories, although they mysteriously all end up in various unfinished states. They supposedly had a poem published in middle school, though this is their first proper publishing experience.

C.D. GILLIKIN is the name given to a large bipedal primate that can sometimes be found in the forests and swamps of the Great Lakes area. Long suspected to be able to use tools like the other apes, some zoopsychologists have held to the oncefringe idea that it is capable of creating speculative fiction and deriving a sense of wonder and beauty from its odd roaming about in nature. While piano music has been heard drifting from its alleged den, the text within this tome provides the first published evidence of its ability to create.

LILA SCOTT  is a senior at the University of Michigan, studying German and Economics. She loves coffee, reading, and white wine, among all the other fine things in life. She could probably beat you at Jeopardy, but would definitely lose at Monopoly. Her favorite species of animal is dog, and as evidenced by this anthology, she has written at least one poem.

S. ALASTOR NODE was unfortunately born in Ohio but uses this misfortune to write about Michigan and her mother instead. A senior at the University of Michigan, she is majoring in Philosophy and English and hopes to be a professor one day. Often, she wonders if her students will find this book and, if they do, how they’d react to knowing that 42° 15’ 19.224’’ N 83° 41’ 13.92’’ W once sparked joy

All authors: JD Akins, Kaleb A. Brown, C.D. Gillikin, Carol May, Ivy Obuchowski, Abby, O'Meara, Lila Scott, S. Alastor Node and Kathryn Orwig.